Here's What You Need to Know: Japan's next fighter could be an extremely cutting-edge compilation of emerging innovations.

Lockheed Martin may help Japan engineer a new stealth fighter, a development that could clearly pave the way toward interesting and innovative new aerospace technologies potentially designed to leverage some of the known attributes of the F-35 and F-22. 

Of course, Lockheed isn’t likely to “give away the store” as they say, but Japan is a strong U.S. ally with a growing fleet of F-35s and a Japanese newspaper is reporting that Lockheed has joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as a junior partner to help build a new platform for the 2030s. 

“Lockheed’s participation as a junior partner in development, had been expected after it earlier proposed a hybrid design based on its F-35 and F-22 jets. Japan’s Ministry of Defence awarded MHI the primary role in October,” Reuters reports. 

The new fighter, called the F-3 or F-X is expected to emerge as a new variant of Japan’s well-known F-2 which was also engineered by MHI and Lockheed, the paper adds.

Other major U.S. defense contractors may join the effort as well, potentially making the new fighter an extremely cutting-edge compilation of emerging innovations. 

The potential collaboration cited by the paper seems to raise an interesting and quite significant question, such as whether the United States might itself be interested in acquiring the new plane as well. Probably not likely given that America has reportedly already flown its own demonstrator sixth-generation aircraft. However, given the growing level of U.S.-allied weapons development collaboration in recent years, who knows? 

Also, there is precedent with this, not only regarding the previous Lockheed-MHI efforts but also between Japan and Raytheon on the SM-3 interceptor missile and Aegis radar. The development of the successful SM-3 interceptor program, a ship-fired ballistic missile defense weapon, is the result of a collaborative U.S.-Japan developmental effort which is aligned with Lockheed’s international cooperation regarding Aegis radar partners. 

Yet another element of this is the clear and well-known reality that a U.S.-Japan partnership is increasingly vital for the Pacific region given continued tension between the United States and China, not to mention ongoing disagreements between Japan and China as well. 

What might this kind of F-3 fighter look like? Is there a chance it could in any way align with cutting edge efforts to take stealth performance, sensors and weapons to a new level? As the paper reported, there has at very least been some discussion about finding a way to synergize the best of the F-22 and F-35 into a single platform.

Who knows, maybe that is part of the technical rationale behind U.S. sixth-generation stealth fighter development. Certainly, a fighter platform with an optimal blend between F-22-like supercruise speed and air-to-air combat superiority and F-35-like multi-role capability would break new ground in the world of air combat. Perhaps future stealth fighters will do even more than that? Seems possible, yet details regarding specific technical applications are of course not available for security reasons. 

Kris Osborn is the defense editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

This article first appeared earlier this month.

Image: Flickr / U.S. Air Force